Manuel Zelaya

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Manuel Zelaya
President of Honduras
In office
27 January 2006 – 28 June 2009
Vice PresidentElvin Ernesto Santos
Arístides Mejía
Preceded byRicardo Maduro
Succeeded byRoberto Micheletti (Acting)[1]
Personal details
Born (1952-09-20) 20 September 1952 (age 71)
Catacamas, Honduras
Political partyLiberal Party
SpouseXiomara Castro

José Manuel Zelaya Rosales, also known as Mel Zelaya, (born September 20, 1952) is a Honduran politician who was elected President of Honduras in 2006. He was deposed by the Army on June 28, 2009, but is seen as the legitimate president by the international community.[2][3][4]

He defeated National Party candidate Porfirio Pepe Lobo in a national election on November 27, 2005 and was inaugurated on January 27, 2006, replacing Ricardo Maduro and becoming the fifth President from the Liberal Party.

Zelaya's attempt to hold a constitutional referendum caused a political crisis and his ousting.[5]

Background

Zelaya was born the oldest of four children in Juticalpa, Olancho. He attended Niño de Jesús de Praga y Luis Landa elementary and the Instituto Salesiano San Miguel. He studied Industrial Engineering in The National University of Honduras (UNAH) but left after four years with 11 courses passed to engage fully in the agroforestry business sector. Two of his brothers remain alive, one is Carlos Armando and the other is Marco Antonio, while his mother, Ortensia Rosales de Zelaya, has been described as his best campaigner. He has engaged in various business activities, specifically timber and cattle, which were handed down to him by his late father. He is now a landowner in the department of Olancho. His family first lived in Copán then they moved east to Olancho.

Political career

He joined the Liberal Party of Honduras (Partido Liberal de Honduras, PLH) in 1970 and became active a decade later. He was a deputy in the National Congress three consecutive times between 1985 and 1998. He held many positions within the PLH and was Minister for Investment in charge of the Honduran Social Investment Fund (FHIS) in a previous PLH government. During the government of Carlos Roberto Flores Zelaya introduced an Open counties programme to decentralize decision making and return power to the local communities. He used both the official division according to Municipality and another method which categorised people according to their indigenous or traditional communities, with said categorisation creating 297 different groups and he planned to revive this scheme during his presidency.

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During the election campaign Zelaya promised to double police numbers from 9,000 to 18,000. He also promised to initiate a programme of re-education amongst the Mara Salvatrucha gangs. In this question his approach was very different from that of his main rival Pepe Lobo, who advocated the death penalty for these groups, leading the Honduran media to describe the country as having chosen reconciliation over confrontation.

Presidency

George W. Bush and Manuel Zelaya greet each other in New York, 18 September 2006.

General opinions about his presidency were very divided by political, ideological and party lines. The traditional left praised him for his economic policies and social reforms which on occasion have put him at odds with the economic powers which traditionally have ruled in Honduras. The more conservative part of the population expressed their opposition to both his foreign policy, particularly his alliance with Hugo Chavez in Venezuela, and his adhering Honduras to the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas as well as for his periodic attacks on the United States, and periodic confrontations with the business sector.

The Economist gave Zelaya mixed reviews for his first year in office, saying that "Despite success in fulfilling some of his campaign promises [...] Zelaya’s lack of a coherent programme has limited the government’s ability to address Honduras’s long-standing problems," and that "introducing far-reaching reforms will be difficult" in the face of vigorous opposition and "simmering social tensions."[6] In 2008, Zelaya's popular approval dropped amid the 2007–2008 world food price crisis and worsening drug-related violence that gave Honduras one of the highest homicide rates in Latin America. [7]

Media control

On May 24, 2007, Zelaya ordered all the country's television and radio stations to broadcast simultaneous interviews with the President and government ministers for two hours a day. The move was fiercely criticized by the country's main journalists' union, and Zelaya was dubbed "authoritarian" by the opposition.[8]

Drugs

On February 22, 2008, Zelaya called on the United States to legalize drugs, in order, he said, to prevent the majority of violent murders occurring in Honduras. Honduras is used by cocaine smugglers as a transit point between Colombia and the US. Honduras, with a population of 7 million, suffers an average of 12 murders a day, an estimated 70% of which result from the international drug trade. He also said that Guatemala, El Salvador and Mexico face the same problem.[9]

Call to change the constitution

Main article: Honduran constitutional referendum, 2009

In 2009 Zelaya caused uproar with his call to have a referendum in June to decide about convening a Constitutional National Assembly to approve a new political constitution in order to allow the President to be re-elected, given that the current constitution only allows a president to serve for a single term.[10] The constitution explicitly bars changes to some of its clauses, including the term limit.

The question to be asked was: "¿Está usted de acuerdo que en las elecciones generales de noviembre de 2009 se instale una cuarta urna para decidir sobre la convocatoria a una Asamblea Nacional Constituyente que apruebe una nueva Constitución política?" This is roughly translated as "Do you agree to the installation of a fourth ballot [box] during the November 2009 general election to decide whether to convene a National Constitutional Assembly to approve a new political constitution?"[11]

The referendum was ruled unlawful by Honduras's highest court.[12] Zelaya rejected the ruling and sacked Romeo Vásquez Velásquez, the head of Honduras's armed forces. Velásquez had refused to help with the referendum because he did not want to violate law. The sacking was deemed unlawful by the Supreme Court as well as by the Congress.[12][13]

In addition to the Supreme Court, Zelaya's referendum was declared illegal by the Congress, the country's attorney general, and the country's top electoral body.[14][15] The Congress began discussing how to impeach Zelaya.[16] On June 27, 2009, thousands of protesters opposed to Zelaya's rule marched through the capital city.[16]

The Supreme Court, the Congress, and the military have recommended that voters stay home because the referendum would be neither fair nor safe to voters. The National Human Rights Commissioner, Ramon Custodio, said "I would tell the people to stay calmly at home in order not to get involved in any incident or any violence by going to vote 'no,' because they might be assaulted by these mobs," referring to Zelaya's supporters. However, unions and farm groups supported the referendum as a necessary precursor to economic reforms favoring Honduras's poor majority.[7]

Political crisis

Main article: 2009 Honduran political crisis

On June 28, 2009, President Zelaya was seized by soldiers, who later claimed to have been acting on the orders of the Honduran Supreme Court, and taken to an air force base.[17][18] Honduran radio station HRN reported that Zelaya had been sent into exile. He has been taken to Costa Rica, a neutral country.[19]

Immediately following his ouster, Zelaya spoke to the media from his forced exile in San Jose and described the events "a coup" and "a kidnapping." He stated that soldiers pulled him from his bed and assaulted his guards. Zelaya stated that he will not recognize anyone named as his successor and that he wants to finish his term in office. He also stated that he will now be meeting with diplomats,[20] and plans to attend the Summit of Central American Presidents in Managua, Nicaragua to be held June 30, 2009.[21]

The National Congress voted to accept what they claimed is Zelaya's letter of resignation, but Zelaya said he did not write the letter.[22]

National Congress President Roberto Micheletti assumed the presidency following Zelaya's ouster.[1]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b Bremer, Catherine (June 28, 2009). "Q+A: Honduras president ousted in military coup". Reuters. Retrieved June 29, 2009. {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  2. ^ "Honduran Congress names provisional president". CNN. June 28, 2009. Retrieved June 29, 2009.
  3. ^ http://u.tv/News/New-Honduran-government-under-pressure-to-quit/e6fcabef-44da-49f4-ae1e-a4bfefa9ae58
  4. ^ http://espana.cubanoal.cu/index.html
  5. ^ "Honduran president seeks exile". Al Jazeera. June 28, 2009. Retrieved June 29, 2009.
  6. ^ "Honduras politics: Mixed report card for Zelaya". Economist Intelligence Unit. May 10, 2007. Retrieved June 29, 2009.
  7. ^ a b Weissert, Will (June 27, 2009). "Honduran leader pushes ahead with divisive vote". The Miami Herald. Associated Press. Retrieved June 29, 2009.
  8. ^ Grant, Will (May 25, 2007). "Honduras TV gets government order". BBC News. Retrieved June 29, 2009.
  9. ^ "Zelaya sugiere a EUA legalizar drogas". La Prensa (in Spanish). February 23, 2008. Retrieved June 29, 2009.
  10. ^ "Sigue rechazo a la cuarta urna". La Prensa (in Spanish). June 11, 2009. Retrieved June 29, 2009.
  11. ^ "Honduras: "consulta ilegal"" (in Spanish). BBC News. March 26, 2009. Retrieved June 29, 2009.
  12. ^ a b Cuevas, Freddy (June 26, 2009). "Honduras heads toward crisis over referendum". Yahoo News. Associated Press. Retrieved June 29, 2009.
  13. ^ "Honduran leader defies top court". BBC News. June 26, 2009. Retrieved June 29, 2009.
  14. ^ Oppenheimer, Andres (June 27, 2009). "ALBA bloc leaders' main obsession: indefinite rule". The Miami Herald. Retrieved June 29, 2009.
  15. ^ De Cordoba, José (June 26, 2009). "Honduras lurches toward crisis over election". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved June 29, 2009.
  16. ^ a b Luhnow, David (June 27, 2009). "Honduras crisis opens regional rift". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved June 29, 2009.
  17. ^ Flores, Alex (June 28, 2009). "Presencia de nicas y venezolanos en Honduras aceleró captura de Zelaya". El Heraldo (in Spanish). Retrieved June 29, 2009. {{cite news}}: Check |url= value (help)
  18. ^ "Secretary: Soldiers arrest Honduran president". Yahoo News. Associated Press. June 28, 2009. Retrieved June 29, 2009.
  19. ^ Cuevas, Freddy (June 28, 2009). "Honduran military sends president into exile". Toronto Star. Associated Press. Retrieved June 29, 2009. {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  20. ^ "Honduran president calls arrest a 'kidnapping'". The Washington Post. Associated Press. June 28, 2009. Retrieved June 29, 2009.
  21. ^ "Exiled Zelaya insists he is rightful Honduran president". Yahoo News. Agence France-Presse. June 28, 2009. Retrieved June 29, 2009.
  22. ^ Weissert, Will (June 28, 2009). "Honduran military ousts president ahead of vote". Yahoo News. Associated Press. Retrieved June 29, 2009. {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)

External links

Political offices
Preceded by President of Honduras
2006–2009 		Succeeded by
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